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Health Billing Strategies

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Tips and Strategies for Billing for Mental Health Services in a Primary Care Setting.

Note : According to the American Medical Association (AMA) Current Procedural Terminology

( CPT ) 2005 Evaluation and Management Services Guidelines, when Counseling and /or C Coordination of Care dominates ( More than 50 Percent ) the Physician/Patient and /or Family e encounter, then Time may be considered the controlling factor to qualify for a particular level o of E/M service; this may allow the physician to code a higher level of service.

( Source: Mid -American Coalition on Health Care, 2004)

CPT and HCPCS Codes for Medicare & Medicaid Payment for mental health services*

TYPE of Code Tip #1: Diagnosis Codes Use one of the following ICD-10-CM diagnosis codes, if appropriate: 311 Depressive Disorder, Not …show more content…
• Do not use psychiatric or psychotherapy CPT codes (90801-90899) with a depression claim for a primary care setting. These codes tend to be reserved for psychiatric or psychological practitioners only.

BILLING FOR ACTUAL TIME OF SERVICE: Many physicians spend a significant amount of time engaged in counseling patients or coordinating patient care. The CPT nomenclature for Evaluation and Management (E/M) coding defines counseling as a discussion with the patient and / or family or other caregiver concerning one or more of the following areas: Diagnostic results, impressions, and / or recommended diagnostic studies, Prognosis, Risks and benefits of management (treatment) options, Instructions for management (treatment) and / or follow-up, Importance of compliance with chosen management (treatment) options, Risk factor reduction, Patient and family education. (Often, the higher levels of E/M services can be legitimately supported and consequently, higher reimbursement dollars may be

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